USAF online photo album puts you in the jet pilot’s seat

Four F-15s from Lakenheath caught as they break close formation above the clouds'USAF photo ANL-151231-112756001

Published:06:37Saturday 02 January 2016

Aircraft and personnel from the USAF bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath feature in many of the ‘Pictures of 2015’ the United States Air Force in Europe has posted online.

The air force has compiled a Flickr album of ‘our favourite photographs’ which range from truly spectacular in-flight pictures to touching homecoming shots and portraits of individuals.

The power and glory of RAF Lakenheath’s F-15 Eagle fighters and Strike Eagle fighterbombers feature in many, with some stunning air-to-air pictures by the USAF’s photographers, who, sadly, are not named on the album.

The F-15s are seen flying with other nation’s jets on joint operations, with the ungainly A-10 tankbusters that visited Lakenheath this year and escorting the last airworthy Avro Vulcan British jet bomber on a flypast at the base.

There is also an atmospheric shot of the F-15s returning from deployment in Turkey and refuelling from RAF Mildenhall’s 100 Air Refuelling Wing’s KC-135 Stratotankers.

Mildenhall’s in-flight refuelling tankers only appear as their ‘100ARW’ labelled fuelling probes, topping up USAF A-10s, Hercules and an eight-engined B-52, which dates back to the Vietnam era.

Two F-15s from Lakenheath escort the last airworthy Avro Vulcan over the base before its farewell tour of Britain'USAF photo ANL-151231-112818001